The number one issue facing dental practices is the struggle to recruit staff, according to the Association of Dental Groups (ADG). The comments follow the release of a white paper which tracked workforce trends.

The paper titled ‘The Future of Dental Recruitment in the UK: Trends and Predictions for 2025’, concluded that the “supply of trained dental professionals is the top thing they believe had the greatest impact on their practice’s ability to recruit during 2023.”

The paper, published by the British Dental Journal Jobs (BDJ), revealed that 80 per cent of those polled said this was the number one issue.

The ADG has repeatedly said that the priority issue in dentistry is the huge gap in the dental workforce.

Data published by NHS England for the period to March 2024 show there are 2,749 full-time equivalent (FTE basis) NHS dentist vacancies, which make up 87 per cent of total dentist vacancies currently open at 3,160 (FTE basis). These are roles that have been open for an average of 180 days per post, and most are over three months old.

The association said that 411 private vacancies (FTE basis) are still open. The ADG said that there is a system-wide shortage of dentists in the UK across the profession’s ‘mixed economy’.

The result of this gap in the dental workforce is an issue with the number of patient treatments that can be carried out, added the ADG.

The association emphasised the importance of shoring up the dental workforce in their input to the National Audit Office (NAO) review both at a meeting and in writing as they prepared their report into the failings of the dental recovery plan. The ADG has said it has been clear throughout that the dental workforce is the number one issue. However, it said that when the NAO report came out, it did not reflect a proper picture of the dentistry landscape or the issues; it focused on the NHS contract, not the UK's lack of dentists.

Neil Carmichael, executive chair for the ADG, said, “The NAO report was a terrible waste of public funds and has brought us no closer to a solution to fix the crisis in dentistry. The ADG called for a public inquiry, and we now welcome this proper examination of the issues. We have ensured the committee has the insights from our association’s members who are living day-to-day struggling to recruit trained dental professionals. Let’s hope they listen! We can then move forward to rescue UK dentistry and deliver to patients the care they deserve.”

The Public Accounts Committee has called for a public inquiry, something the ADG demanded in January 2025. The ADG has made their submission to this call for input, which closed on January 30, 2025.

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